Open Road
by Malin Halibell
Summary: What's a group of eight friends to do when summer gets boring? Take a three week long road trip in a hippie van, that's what. The gang embarks on their summer adventure, full of motel rooms, cheap diners, junk food, the open road, music blasting, and heated touches.
1. Chapter 1

"Oy! Swan, come to the damn window before I break my neck!"

I almost fell out of my bed, the sheets twisted around my legs, but regained my balance and ambled to my window. I recognized the voice, so I threw the window open without any hesitation.

Alice's dark hair was shoved into my face as she gracefully swung herself into my room.

Of course they'd send her up, being the little tree climber that she it.

"About time, I've been balancing on that branch for like ten minutes." She grumbled.

"In case you've lost your sense of time, it's three o'clock in the morning. You're about six hours early there, pixie girl." I rubbed my eyes.

"We decided to leave early, makes things more fun!" She said with energy that should be illegal at this hour.

"I don't remember agreeing to that."

"You weren't there, so we voted amongst ourselves." Alice dismissed things with a wave. "Now, get dressed. And you better already have your bag packed because we don't have time."

"Slow down." I threw my hands up as I tried to fight through my sleepy brain. "Can I at least have coffee?"

"Nope." She said with a pop, clearly waiting for me to get my ass into gear.

I fell back onto my bed, wanting to curl up there and sleep, but Alice was having none of that. She pounced, on all fours she hovered over me, her hair swinging down around her face.

"You know... Edward's waiting down there..." She trailed off wickedly.

"What?!" I whisper shouted, jumping up and running to my mirror and saw that I was in no shape to see Edward Cullen.

"He's chillin' in the hippie van with everyone else waiting for your ass." She explained.

Edward.

The boy who'd reduced me to giggles and blushing and fantasies of us snuggling on the couch. Don't get me wrong here, I have come up with quite a few scenarios that would make a trucker blush, but maybe it was the inner girly-girl deep down inside me that thought being wrapped in Edward's arms with my face buried against his hard, warm chest was sexier than than any amount of dirty things he could do with his hands and cock.

I'd been this way for nearly a year now, when Jasper Hale, Alice's long time boyfriend, showed up with his hometown best friend. Edward was twenty-two, freshly escaped from college with four years under his belt, and wanted somewhere he could relax and be happy. He was a graphic artist, and he managed to snag a decent job in Seattle just a couple months after arriving.

The things he could do with his hands... yeah, lots of fantasies involving those fingers pumping into me.

Rosalie and Alice always told me every coffee he'd bring me, every brush against my arm, every time he made me laugh, that he was flirting with me. I didn't know what to think. I figured if he liked me that much, he'd come out and say something, Edward was a confident guy.

Rose always just gave me a look and walked away.

Now with the promise of that crooked smile, those nimble hands, and messy red hair, I was wide awake and riffling through my closet to pick over what I hadn't packed.

I dressed simply and comfortably in a pair of jean shorts and a loose gray shirt that dipped low, showing off the goods. I sat on the floor to pull my chucks on and hauled my suitcase out of the corner. Only one bag per person, a rule that had distressed Alice greatly, but was needed considering that lack of space we'd have with everyone crammed into Rose's 1965 Volkswagen van.

Quickly I rubbed on some lotion and brushed through my hair with my fingers, since I'd already packed my brush – a _genius_ move on my part. Satisfied that this was as good as it gets, I followed Alice out of my bedroom.

"You could've knocked on the front door." I said as we made our way downstairs.

"Eh, I didn't want to wake up miss bitchy." She shrugged, referring to my roommate, Victoria.

Take the bitchiness of Alice, Rose, and Tanya, combine it all together in one person, and I still don't think it could rival Victoria when she got in a mood.

Our exit was stealthy, and we were met outside by our group of friends.

Jake was sprawled across my front yard, an arm thrown over his face, not too far from the van. Tanya was straddling his stomach, hair in a messy bun and wearing nothing but an oversized sweatshirt and shorts, attempting to tickle and prod him into getting up.

Rose, Emmett, and Jasper were huddled together in a half circle in front of the van, looking over the map and arguing about food stops along the way.

My eyes found Edward, the side door of the van was swung open, and he sitting cross legged on the carpeted floor. A black beanie covered most of his hair, but a few stubborn stray locks stuck out underneath. Worn and holey jeans encased his legs and I had to smile when I saw that his burgundy t-shirt read _K__eep __C__alm and __Ca__rry a __W__and_.

Nerdy shirts were one of my weaknesses.

"Coffee?" He greeted me, holding out a to-go cup from the local diner.

"You mean the elixir of life? Yes." I sipped the hot liquid, feeling it slide down my throat.

He let out a sigh and leaned back on his hands, his shirt tightening against his muscled chest. "Waking up and leaving in the middle of the night seemed fun and spontaneous when we were high last night... now I wanna go back in time and punch Emmett square in the jaw."

So this little escapade was Em's idea.

I'd have to remember to get my revenge later.

I heard Tanya grunting behind us, trying to help Jake up off the ground and he didn't seem to be too into the idea.

Tall and muscled with shaggy black curls and tanned skin, Jake Black was just as much a walking teddy bear as Emmett was.

I could hear his footsteps, heavy and dragging from sleep deprivation, coming up behind me. He swung an arm around my shoulders and rested his chin on top of my head. I could've sworn Edward's eyes tightened at the gesture.

"What's up Twinkle Bells?" He asked, sounding worse off than I was.

"You wanna go all _Full Metal Jacket_ on Em with me later?" I joked.

"Where would we get all the soap?" He asked, playing along.

"If there's a will, there's a way." I grumbled.

Jake chuckled lightly, unwrapping himself from me and climbing clumsily past Edward and into the back of the van, no doubt to pass out.

"Little bit of wake and bake, this fine Saturday morning?" Jasper held out a perfectly rolled joint to me. Only perfection from Jasper.

"Hmmm..." I hummed, taking a slow hit off it.

This was nice.

"I can't believe you're smoking that out in the open." Rose shook her head, sounding more amused than anything. "The sheriff lives like three houses down."

"Does he have night vision goggles, scoping out the neighborhood at three am?" Jasper retorted.

"Possibly, he's a suspicious old fart." Rose snorted.

Edward's fingers brushed against mine, taking the joint from me. I tried not to watch as his pink lips wrapped around it, how when he blew out the smoke I could see the tip of his tongue run across his bottom lip. He had a piercing there, a snakebite, all silver and shiny. I thought about sucking on it, thought about how many other piercings he has hidden underneath his clothes that I can suck on.

My dirty thoughts were interrupted.

"Inside! I want to be in Seattle by sunrise for breakfast!" Alice clapped her hands together, ushering me into the van.

It wasn't long before we were all wedged inside, like a game of tetris.

Rose was driving first, so naturally Emmett sat up front with her in the middle, with Tanya on the other side of him, pressed into the door. Jasper and Alice sat on the bench seat in the middle, and Edward and I had the back bench all to ourselves. The only downside was Jake snoring in the back across all our bags, one of his long legs propped up on the back of our seat.

Edward had to do some maneuvering to get the smelly foot out of my face.

Emmett was bouncing in the front seat with an exuberance that rivaled Alice's, and I was reminded that they actually were brother and sister. It was easy to forget with the size difference, but their nearly black hair and excitable personalities were casual reminders.

"He drank six cups of coffee before we left to come get you." Edward muttered in my ear, his sudden closeness making me shiver.

I shifted slightly toward him, matching his playful grin.

I knew being stuck in a car with Edward for the next three weeks was not good for my self control, but I was secretly hoping it wasn't good for Edward's either.

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"Don't touch my bacon." Emmett jabbed a finger rather seriously at Jake.

"I already ate all of mine!" Jake whined, swirling a fork through his hashbrowns.

Tanya rolled her eyes with a small smile, and placed a slice of her own bacon on his plate. Jake's smile was dazzling as he picked up the greasy pork, biting off a piece and then offering her a bite.

True love ladies and gentlemen.

At six o'clock in the morning the IHOP wasn't busy yet, so our waitress didn't make much of fuss about our group being loud. Mostly it was Emmett and Jake bickering like usual. I swear they're like an old married couple.

"We're really doing this." Jasper muses across from me in our oversized booth.

"Yeah, but half of us won't make it home alive." Edward snickers to himself.

I imagined the bloodbath that would ensue sooner or later, when one of us had a breakdown from a lack of everyday luxuries we'd become accustomed to.

The guys, Rose and I could do it, easy, but Alice and Tanya were used to their own clean showers everyday and Project Runway every Thursday night. The kind of motel rooms we'd be staying in probably didn't have the Style Network. There would probably even be nights that we'd camp out, like when we planned on going through Yosemite National Park.

Tanya and bugs?

Not happening in this dimension.

One time, she screamed when a butterfly flew too close to her face.

"I heard that!" Alice punches Edward's arm, not making much of an impact on him.

I shoved another bite of banana pecan pancakes in my mouth to avoid being pulled into an argument. I suppose you could say we were full grown people who acted like seven year olds, but no matter what, we loved each other and laughed and understood one another in ways I'm not sure I could understand anyone else.

_Yeah_, I think with sincerity, _t__his is gonna be fun_.

Soon breakfast was finished and we all ordered a round of coffee to go, and we were on our way again.

There was an excitement in the air now that the earlier hours had been lacking.

Edward was grinning ear to ear, arms wrapped around my waist and spinning me around the parking lot as I giggled uncontrollably. Jake was giving Tanya a piggyback ride, running laps around the van, her red curls flying behind them. And Rose was actually skipping to the van.

Emmett and Jasper came out of the IHOP with a couple togo boxes. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them was full of nothing but bacon.

"Let the road trip begin!"

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**Hello! If you're reading this, that means you've read the first chapter. Thank you and I hope you choose to keep on with the story. This is going to be a short, fun story. Updates every few days, nothing solid.**

**I've made a graphic for this little fic, that can be found on my fanfiction tumblr (the link for which is on my profile)**

**Thanks for reading, you're all amazing!**


	2. Chapter 2

Twenty states.

That was our goal.

Alice had wanted to do all fifty, but we didn't have the money or time for that. So we had settled for about half the country.

We would make our way down the west coast to get Oregon and California out of the way, then work our way randomly across the country to whatever tune we felt like.

Tanya was driving now and we'd just past the _Welcome to Oregon _sign.

"_Whoa__ we're halfway there! Whoa, living on __a__ prayer! Take my hand, we'll make it I swear_!" Tanya belted out at the top of her lungs along with the radio.

Jake was doing finger drum solos against the dashboard and Emmett had his air guitar going on between Rose and Jasper.

"No way you can do it." I taunted Edward in the backseat.

"I'm hurt that you lack confidence in my oral skills." Edward mock pouted.

At the mention of Edward's _oral skills_, I blushed a little, thinking of things that had nothing to do with our current debate.

A massive bag of M&Ms sat in his lap, and he was popping them back like happy pills. He'd asked me to play a game with him by tossing them into his mouth and he'd try to catch them on his tongue.

"You'd be surprised at what I can do with my tongue, Bella." Edward continued to tease.

Jasper let out a weird snort cough sound in front of us, no doubt having heard, and I blushed an even deeper shade of pink. Edward either didn't hear or ignored him, because his eyes pierced into mine with a clear challenge.

"Gimme the bag." I snatched the M&Ms away from him before he embarrassed us both any further.

"Ready?" I asked, twirling one of the little pieces of candy around my fingers.

In response, Edward opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue, and I could see he was fighting a smile. I took aim for his mouth and tossed the candy at an arc, Edward leaned forward a little and caught it dead center on the middle of his tongue.

"Told ya." He smirked.

I lost count of the minutes, of how long the game continued, I threw candy after candy at him, even Alice tried to get him to mess up a few times, but he caught every one of them with that annoyingly sexy smirk.

"Dude, you're gonna ruin that six pack with all that fucking chocolate." Emmett chuckled. He was just upset we were hogging the bag.

"Psh... yours will go before mine. All that beer you drink? You're gonna have a gut sticking so far out you can't even seen your dick, all before you're thirty-five." Edward said.

Emmett's eyes widened and whipped around in his seat, suddenly looking very concerned.

"Please don't talk about that, because that's probably what I'll be married too." Rose winced.

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"We can go hiking through the Cascade Mountains!" Rose said excitedly.

She was studying the map we'd brought along with us, planning our stops through Oregon.

"Uh... no hardcore outdoorsy stuff." Tanya said.

_Well... I knew that had been coming._

"The whole point of us going on this trip is so we can explore new things, do stuff we've never done before." Rose said.

"Yeah, but I figured we'd stand next to the worlds' biggest ball of yarn, or go to the famous wax museum, maybe visit Graceland or something. Hiking through mountains is not my idea of fun and self discovery." Tanya argued.

"I need to pee." Emmett cut in, bouncing in his seat like a five year old.

"I'll stop at the next gas station." Tanya muttered to him.

"Then it's Bella's turn to drive!" Alice turned around in her seat and wagged her eyebrows at me.

"What? I thought Jasper was next!" I protested.

I wasn't ready to give up Edward sitting just inches from me.

"Nope, it goes you, _then_ Jasper." She smiled innocently.

Fuck.

I had been making some serious progress with Edward.

_Pssh... don't lie to yourself Bella, it's pathetic._

Tanya drove the van into a little gas station that definitely fit in with the whole 'small town' cliché. We all piled out, stretching our legs and listening to Emmett bitch about how there was no room to stretch out and he should get a bench seat all to himself.

Alice and I made a snack run inside, which is where the never ending problem Alice faced daily reared it's ugly head.

"Just grab the damn knockoff Twinkies and get in the car!" I shouted at Alice, throwing down my own stash of junk food on the counter, which earned an amused look from the worker.

You'd think it was the end of the world when Hostess went under with the way Alice had taken the loss of her precious golden cream filled guilty pleasure. She would buy the off brand copies, but she sure as hell made sure to bitch about it.

"How could they go under? Twinkies aren't like cassette tapes ya know, they never go out of date and get replaced with something better!" Alice made herself known behind me.

I hid a smile as I handed the worker the money for the sweets and gas. She was still complaining on the way out the door and to the van.

"Did you get my Twizzlers?" Rose asked, fiddling with the gas pump.

"Of course." I rolled my eyes that she would ever doubt me.

The last time I forgot Roses' Twizzlers was in the sixth grade and she didn't talk to me for the rest of the day.

Girl took that shit seriously.

A muscled arm was suddenly pulling me into a very warm side, and Edward was grinning down at me.

"What did you get me?" He teased, flexing the arm around my shoulders to pull me closer.

"Reese's Peanut Butter Cups." I held out the package in a mock offering and watched as his eyes lit up.

"Damn, king size too." He blew out. "You really do love me."

I nearly choked on my fucking spit.

Before I could say anything else, Emmett, Jasper, and Jake descended and picked me dry like vultures.

Rose nearly ripped my arm off yanking me around the van.

"Pull yourself together, Swan!" She whispered. "You're gonna have to do better than that if you want to make it through this trip without choking to death."

"Fuck that, just kiss him already, do _something_, fuck!" Tanya groaned like she was frustrated.

"I'm not gonna kiss him!" I hissed. "What if I try something and he doesn't feel the same way and I end up ruining the entire trip for everyone!"

"If that boy doesn't have feelings for you, I won't eat anything even resembling a Twinke for the next ten years." Alice snorted, licking some cream filling off her finger.

"Just drop it!" I was starting to get irritated with their constant badgering.

"Are we going to get this show on the road?" Jake shouted from the other side of the van. "I want to make good time for lunch!"

"You're eating an entire bag of chips!" Tanya stomped off with an eye roll.

I took the chance the distraction offered and slipped away from Rose and Alice, quickly taking a seat in the van before they tried to drag me back.

The girls pushing me to basically pounce on Edward was not what I wanted my plan of action to be. I always thought that if Edward really wanted anything more with me that he'd ask me out. Now, I was starting to think I was going to have to take things into my own hands. I was getting way too sexually frustrated for this shit.

"Tough crowd?"

Jasper was sprawled across the back seat, his curly blond mop of hair poking over the seat as he puffed on a joint.

At least he was trying to hide it.

"Jasper, can I... tell you something completely hypothetical?" I asked, desperate for a somewhat reasonable voice in this.

"Come back here to my office." He sat up and patted the space beside him.

I climbed over the seats with somewhat graceful movements, settling myself beside him with a bounce and I reached for the joint he held out to me.

"Okay," I blew out the smoke slowly, "hypothetically – and if you speak of this to anyone I'll tell Alice to hide your pot stash for the rest of the trip – if I were to like someone that's on this little trip with us, and I have no idea how this person would respond to my feelings and I don't want to ruin our friendship, what would your advice be?"

"Well hypothetically, I say that maybe you should look closer, because I'm pretty fuckin' sure there's someone else who doesn't want to risk ruining a friendship." Jasper said, his eyes darting to where Edward stood laughing at something Tanya was saying to Jake.

"You really think so?" I asked, worrying my bottom lip between my teeth.

"I say that your hypothetical plan of attack should be subtle seduction. The you'll see just how far he'll be willing to take it without throwing out the friendship card." Jasper took a drag and nodded like he was some fucking back alley pot smoking therapist.

Subtle seduction, huh?

I think I could do that.


End file.
